If you can live with the plain design, the ZTE Warp Sync is a nice budget-friendly smartphone choice on Boost Mobile.

ZTE has done a nice job establishing itself as a source for value-driven smartphones. That's especially true on Boost Mobile, where you'll find more ZTE-branded phones than on any other carrier. While the ZTE Speed is a forgettable disappointment in this year's lineup, the $149.99 Warp Sync strikes a nice balance between features, performance, and price. It's the utilitarian alternative to the equally priced Sharp Aquos Crystal, offering slightly better battery life and call quality in exchange for an overly bland design.

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Design, Features, and Call Quality The Warp Sync is a rounded blob of soft-touch plastic, neither slim nor lightweight at 5.6 by 2.9 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 5.75 ounces. Dated capacitive navigation buttons and an awkward, side-mounted micro USB port accentuate the poor design choices here. The back peels off to reveal a removable 2,300mAh battery, as well as SIM and microSD card slots.

The 5-inch, 720p LCD easily trumps the LG Volt's smaller display on both resolution and quality. Viewing angles are wide, colors look vivid, and contrast is great for an LCD panel. It's a high-quality display, but it can't match the magic of Sharp's bezel-free design on the Aquos.

The Warp Sync connects to Sprint's 3G CMDA (800/850/1900MHz) and 4G LTE (850/1900/2500MHz) networks, which means fast mobile speeds if you happen to fall under Sprint's limited LTE coverage. In my tests, call quality wasn't especially strong, but the traditional earpiece outperforms the Aquos Crystal's unorthodox system. I was able to hear callers clearly in moderately loud outdoor settings, though voices sounded a touch treble-heavy for my taste. Transmissions through the mic were clean in my tests, but I detected occasional clipping at the beginning or end of phrases. Noise cancellation is only average, while the rear-ported speakerphone is loud, but lacks tone on either end.

Rounding out the connectivity options are 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS.

Performance and AndroidWith an all-too-common Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, clocked at 1.2GHz with 2GB RAM, performance numbers yield few surprises for the Warp Sync. This is the same basic setup we've seen on countless Android smartphones for the past year, but the 2GB RAM is more generous than the 1.5GB in the Aquos Crystal. I didn't notice any real performance advantage when jumping between concurrent apps, and like every other Snapdragon 400 device, the Warp Sync rarely feels underpowered unless you're firing up graphically intensive games. Performance on that front suffers a bit when compared with phones like the LG Volt, which has a lower-resolution display.

ZTE applies a medium-weight skin to Android 4.4.2, which is mostly confined to visual tweaks. The notification shade and lock screens get mild customizations, while most other Android functions remain functionally the same. I wouldn't count on any update to Android 5.0 for the Warp Sync. There's one thoughtful addition I discovered by accident, since it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the settings: pulling down anywhere on the home screen summons the notification shade. I wish this was a standard feature on all Android phones, especially on anything bigger than 5 inches.

Of the 8GB of storage, only 3.71GB is available out of the box. Boost's MobileID theming software is onboard, as well as a smattering of seemingly random third-party apps. Thankfully most can be easily uninstalled, though the Lumen Toolbar can only be disabled.

In a battery rundown test, where we streamed a YouTube video over LTE with screen brightness set to max, the Warp Sync lasted for a respectable 5 hours, 52 minutes. Compare that with the 5 hours, 2 minutes of the Sharp Aquos Crystal.

Camera and ConclusionsThe 8-megapixel, rear-facing camera is pretty quick to focus and snap off shots, but the resulting images are just mediocre. Fine details like wood grain are indistinct, even under bright outdoor light. Colors are oversaturated and I noticed a bit of a pink cast for indoor shots. Image grain becomes overwhelming under typical fluorescent lighting, while focus is routinely soft with less-than-ideal light. Video tops out at 1080p resolution with frame rates around 24fps under low light. Footage doesn't look particularly sharp, and with zero image stabilization, any movement becomes very jarring.

The Warp Sync embodies what ZTE does best: delivering quality, unassuming smartphones at a bargain. With a nice 5-inch, 720p display, good battery life, and a standard-issue Qualcomm chip, the Warp Sync is a good deal for $149.99. Held next to the strikingly beautiful Sharp Aquos Crystal, though, and the design is seriously generic. Both phones offer similar feature sets, with a slight performance edge going to the Warp Sync. If the design doesn't offend you, it's one of the better deals on Boost Mobile.

About the Author

Before joining the consumer electronics team at PCMag, Eugene worked at local news station NY1 doing everything from camera work to writing scripts. He grew up in Montclair, New Jersey and graduated from the University of Virginia in 2010. Outside of work Eugene enjoys TV, loud music, and making generally healthy and responsible life choices.

ZTE Warp Sync (Boost Mobile)

ZTE Warp Sync (Boost Mobile)

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